Friday, December 07, 2007

I'm so mad at myself right now!

A few month ago I bought some wonderful handblended batts from Stephanie of Spritely Goods. I have three colorways, did the light green "Palo Verde" first. It was also first time spinning from a batt, and it was easy, and fun! I LOVE the sparkle in it.

I made fairly nice singles, no overtwist at all.

First snow of the year always makes me feel like a child before Christmas, so it gets photographed many times.

After plying I had some singles left on one bobbin, and I've decided the last time I had some left over, that I would use it to practice my Navajo plying. I'm getting better at it.

The big skein is not quite 4oz, 428yds, heavy fingering weight, 2-ply

colorway: Palo Verde

fiber content: handdyed merino wool, alpaca, firestar, angelina

(you can click on this pic to have a closer look at the sparkly)

What I'm mad about though is, that I managed to overtwist the finished yarn. Halfway through it dawned on me, that my tensioned Lazy Kate, presumed my new best friend, was way too tight, and after one single broke once, I got it! Loosened it, and the rest of the plying went on smoothly and a lot faster as well. Now I have half a balanced skein of yarn, with the other half overtwisted. Grrrrrrr! Stupid, stupid, stupid. I love the color though, and it's s-h-i-n-y! :o)

Just in case anybody was wondering. The visit to the vet was not so bad. Sam "yodeled" from the first step through the door, until he could get out of there again. My head was spinning afterwards. Both received their vaccinations, or booster shots. Sam has a minor rash on his belly again, which we wash with some antibacterial shampoo the vet gave us. It's clearing up nicely. Biko has problems with her hips. I guess it could be from her manically running and jumping when we play outside. So she's got some restrictions, no more jumping, and we help her going up the big steps. I think I saw some improvement already, or maybe it's only wishful thinking. I sure hope it's not really her hips, don't want another surgery, but it's too early to tell. Sam, of course has to be weird, and confusing too, because whenever he's running a lot outside, and he gets his blood flowing, or when he chews on the tennis ball, which is rare, one of his eyes kind of pops a little or gets bigger than the other. It's hard to describe, and the vet only shook her head. Both Vets looked at his eyes, and found nothing wrong. I spend a lot of time with my dogs, and I know them, and notice when somethings different. At first I thought I imagined it, but my son (sceptical at first) confirmed the "eye popping". Oh, otherwise they are just fine! :o)

And also, even if this is at the end of my post, I wanted to thank you loyal readers and commenters, to take the time to comment. I love to hear from you, and I think blogging is nothing without the communication between blogger and reader, so please keep on doing so! :o)

Now off into the weekend. It's snowing right now. One more thing: As of December 5th I'm done with all my self imposed Christmas knitting! Yeah! On the needles, a scarf and a pair of socks. Pictures coming soon.

19 comments:

yeah, i'm pretty sure i'm not going to get any more holiday knitting done (i've got one hat done and i'm working on a birthday hat for my dear friends baby...b-day in january).

as for the dogs, we know our animals so well. try to take a photo of it next time it happens (the eye popping) to show the vet? glad to hear that they are doing well, hope that bikko's hips don't give her trouble.

Oooo..don't worry, I've done things like that too. Except with a drop spindle. I ended up spinning the wrong way half way through, so half my skien was completely wonky. I didn't even catch myself until the end too!

Poor kids, those two play too hard sometimes. My cat had an eye popping episode when we moved. He was so stressed he actually broke a blood vessel in his eye. I'm sure if it doesn't bother him and it doesn't stick out there permanently he should be ok. But, I admit..that's a little weird. (kinda funny too..I can just see him getting all excited and chewing on his ball and at the same time..his eye popping out in unison.)

Oh, the sparkles are very nice! It looks perfect to me - sorry you feel it might be over-twisted. Sending you positive wishes that the hips are not a problem. They look in fantastic shape in the pictures - but you see the little things when you live with them. Steve was an eye doctor for many years - if the eye-popping continues maybe he will have an idea of what might be happening. Have a fun weekend!

I don't really know what to tell you on the spinning thing, since I barely know what you are talking about. But I'm sure it's half as bad. The yodeling sounded funny, but I know what you mean. Enjoy your "relaxed" knitting, now that you are done.

Mmmm!! That green is sumptuous! Any hints as to what you might turn it into?? Even though there is overtwist it might come out alright in your finished project. I'm beginning to find that handspun is very forgiving with regards to twist and the finished knit ... don't deny it the chance to become something - it may surprise you! Xo) But I admit Bev's comment on 'skein abuse' fascinates me....

Oh! I have three of the Spritely Batts as well, but all of mine are in the beige colourway :) Did you try soaking then hanging your hank to dry? Usually just washing will fix any over twist, but if it's really bad you can weight it while it dries. It's very beautiful!

The Palo Verde is gorgeous! You've already gotten some suggestions to try running it back through the wheel and easing some twist out of the over-twisted section. And I also agree it might knit up better than you think as it is.

That´s simply gorgeous! I really LOVE that sparkling thingy! AND it´s green! Now you got me all worked up, I´m definitely saving up so I can take some classes and learn how to make stuff like that. Over-twists or not, I LOVE IT!=D

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About Me

I live in Canada now, but I'm originally from Austria.
My White Shepherd Happy, and Denny the mutt, are my constant companions. Maggie is my sons dog, but she's with me most of the day. I have two grown kids too ;o) by the way.